King's Pote 221 (King's College Library, King's College Cambridge)

Pote Collection

Summary of Contents: 1 copy of Singhāsan Battīsī (“Tales of the Throne” in Persian translation).

Author: Vikramāditya Shakāri, King of Ujjayn

Title: Singhāsan Battīsī (“Tales of the Throne” in Persian translation)

Language(s): Persian

Colophon details: Date: Undated Scribe: Anonymous.

Colophon further notes: F.2v: a marginal note in red in praise of Jahangir speaks of him as if he is alive, which means it would have to have been written (and the manuscript copied) in 1036/1627 at the latest.

Note concerning work: A work similar in genre to the Badāyiʿ al-ʿUqūl which is found in King's 61.

References

Browne no. 774

Palmer no. 221

Catalogue of the Persian manuscripts in the British Museum (3 vols.) C. Rieu 1879-1883 p.763 [BL Add. 6597]

Mughals in India: a bibliographical survey. Vol. 1. Manuscripts D.N. Marshall 1962 p.19 (translation by ʿAbd al-Qādir Badāʾūnī)

A catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the library of the University of Cambridge, E. Browne (1896) p.398 [Camb. Add. 414]

Physical Description

Form: codex

Extent: 105 folios.

Dimensions (leaf): 23.3 × 16.8 cm.

Dimensions (written): 17.5 × 11 cm.

Foliation: Foliated.

Layout

13 lines per page.

Ruled in double red with a blue outer. Rubrications in red. Catchwords.

Hand(s)

Script: nastaʿlīq. Scribe: Anonymous.

Additions:

Tucked into the manuscript is a letter of 14/11/(18)88 signed Serge d'Oldenburg [of Leningrad] extending over 2.5 pages, beginning: "The original of the Singhasan Battisi… is the Sanscrit… - the 32 tales of the statues of the throne of Vikr-..aditya King of…. The Sanskrit text came down to us in many recensions... A fourth [Persian] version has for its author Biharimali, the date is 1019 in the reign of Jahangir (the ms of the Kings College Library belongs to this version, although it differs considerably from another ms of this version in the India Office Library 1250 [copied in Lucknow in 1194/1780])...".

Binding

Plain brown leather, European style. Plain paper doublures. Dimensions: 23.8 × 16.7 × 1.7 cm. Unboxed. Polier's number: 545.

History

Origin: Undated.

Provenance and Acquisition

The "Pote Collection" arrived in England from India in 1790 and was divided between the Colleges of Eton and King's, Cambridge, with the first half alphabetically going to King's. Both halves of the collection are now housed in Cambridge University Library on permanent loan. Most if not all of the manuscripts had previously been owned by Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri Polier (1741–1795).

Gift of Edward Ephraim Pote (d.1832) in 1788.

Record Sources

Manuscript description based on E. G. Browne, "A supplementary hand-list of the Muhammadan manuscripts, including all those written in the Arabic character, preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge", Cambridge, 1922 and E. H. Palmer, "Catalogue of the oriental manuscripts in the library of King's College, Cambridge", J.R.A.S. v.3 (1867), pp.105-131 enhanced with additional descriptions and corrections by Shiva Mihan.

Availability

All manuscripts of the Pote Collection are on permanent loan at Cambridge University Library. Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card for admissions procedures consult Cambridge University Library. Contact near_eastern@lib.cam.ac.uk for further information on the availability of this manuscript

Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World